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by rebel_diamond



Series: Alias [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Showdown 2018, Woven Lace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 19:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14700483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_diamond/pseuds/rebel_diamond
Summary: Lacey knew that most people thought she was a screw up. Despite people’s doubts, she could give every single one of them the finger with confidence. Written as a sequel to Round 2 of the 2018 Rumbelle Prompt Showdown.*Winner of the 2018 Rumbelle Prompt Showdown* Written under the pen name Deshelved. Story entries for Rounds 1-5, plus sequels.





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Lacey knew that most people thought she was a screw up. Single mom. No college degree. No long-term work experience. No marketable skills. Spends nights in bars and pool halls surrounded by men. Doesn’t return home until morning. Raises her almost teenage son alone in a ramshackle walk up.

Despite people’s doubts, Lacey could give every single one of them the finger with confidence. Gideon got good grades across the board, not just in one or two subjects. He was polite. He listened to her and did as she said and not as she did. God knows she didn’t want anyone doing as she did, least of all her son. She didn't have to abandon who she was because she was a mom. It wasn’t her fault the pearl clutchers of the PTA didn’t know how to have fun anymore. She saw how they scowled when she rolled up to the school doors in a neighbor’s car, blasting Van Halen. Lacey could shrug off every one of their judgmental glares. They were jealous. And she had flicked a catty group of them off once, after Gideon was safe inside the building.

She rethought her brashness after Gideon was taken into police custody. Her heart had been in her stomach the whole way to the station. She didn’t even remember how she got there. Normally, she didn’t mind the police station. She’d been there enough times to charm the desk sergeant and half the night squad. There was also the rapport with Weaver that she got a kick out of. He didn’t bore her like so many men did. The darkness in him appealed to her despite knowing better from a long history of bad boys. Until recently they’d been playing a harmless game where no one got hurt. She knew she’d won when she’d really pressed a button and he’d get very businesslike and his jaw would tick. Lacey liked the feeling of dancing on the razor’s edge when she was with him. Like he wanted to be violent but he’d never threaten her.

It’s what he’d look like right before she’d kissed him. A shiver ran down her spine despite the embarrassment that flared over her face. That was her own stupidity. Thinking he was someone he wasn’t. Thinking the best of him, when she never thought that of anyone else. She made the majority of her living exploiting people’s weaknesses. But for some reason, in that moment, she’d read him wrong. She’d thought he was different. That there was someone else hiding under all that police brutality. That his cocky and sarcastic exterior was just a protective shell. She would know, she had one of her own.

But unlike Weaver, she had Gideon as her center. She was her true self when she was with her son. She didn’t have to pretend to be interested like she did in bars or defensive like when she was around Weaver. She didn’t get the sense that Weaver had anyone like that in his life. She pitied him for it.

The flirtatious vibe they’d cultivated crumbled when she saw Gideon in the station. He looked so small and dejected, sitting outside of Weaver’s office. Instantly Weaver, who had been an irascible ally, had become a threat.

Lacey didn’t mind so much being in Weaver’s debt. Yes, she'd had a recent stumble that ended in her wishing he would have just taken her against the wall outside of Roni’s. But otherwise she could handle herself with him. But she knew that’s what Weaver did, dug up dirt on people and used it against them whenever it suited him. Now he had some on her son and she would never forgive herself for that. Yes, Weaver was a pain in her ass. Always where she don't want him to be, waiting around every corner with a smart ass remark. Yes, it annoyed her and turned her on. But he was also dangerous. She’d forgotten that once. Never again.

They’d had that odd moment at the station when he’d comforted her. That made her question her read on him all over again. Was he a good man pretending to be bad? Or was a bad man pretending to be good? Ultimately, it didn’t matter. She’d obviously pushed their game a step too far. Made painfully obvious when he’d gone running when Victoria Belfrey called. Who could blame him? Victoria was elegant and alluring and severe in a way that men called bitchy but secretly wanted. What man wouldn’t chase after her?

Gideon clattered through the door, interrupting her thought spiral. He came straight home after school now, never stopping at the library anymore. Immediately he sat down and did his homework at the kitchen table. He barely looked her in the eye when he crossed in front of her, slinging his backpack onto the table. None of this was part of any punishment she’d instigated. After the attempted break in at the library he’d disciplined himself. He’d removed any activities he did for fun and threw himself into his schoolwork. Not that he wouldn’t have done his homework anyway. If she had really wanted to punish him she’d have taken his books away, and she’d never do that.  
  
The library incident forced her to reevaluate their apartment for the first time. What would a Child Protective Services rep think of it? She scrutinized the furniture salvaged from the curb, the dishes piled up in the sink, and the sugar cornflake crumbs on the kitchen table. The apartment didn’t look messy or irresponsible to her. It looked loved and lived in, but she knew it to happen. It took so little for a mother’s abilities to be called into question. Gideon was such a great kid, it had never worried her until now. If Weaver ever decided to use their vulnerabilities against them. Or if Gideon was ever caught doing something else and Weaver wasn’t feeling as charitable. It could spell disaster for them.

She wanted to give Gideon better than this. He deserved a nicer neighborhood with access to a better school. With fancy science equipment that he loved and new books every year. She glanced over at the empty jumbo pretzel jar on the counter. A sad pile of ones and fives that littered the bottom. She huffed. Maybe when he was forty, she’d be able to afford it.

Looking at her son so intent on his work, forced Lacey to shake the frown off her face. While she was animated and expressive, her son was very reserved and hesitant to show his emotions. She couldn’t stand him looking so glum.

“Hey,” she sang, “what to you say to pizza tonight? We could even get it delivered,” she wiggled her eyebrows. Delivery, which required the addition of a tip, was a super rare treat reserved only for special occasions.

Gideon looked at her earnestly. She didn’t know where he got this calculating seriousness from all the time. It certainly wasn’t from her. If she could gift him with anything, it was to teach him not to be so hard on himself all the time. To have a good time every once in a while. In a way that didn’t end in the police station. She could take on the weight of responsibility while he could be the kid.

Lacey wasn’t a reader like her son, she was a doer. She was not going to give up. She was going to do whatever she could to make that money in the pretzel jar multiply. She checked the WorkBunny app for part-times gigs. Jacinda, another single mom in the neighborhood, hooked her up with it after a friend of hers turned her on to it. Lacey shook her head. There were an awful lot of women hustling in this town and not nearly as many men in the same situations. She was going to get as many jobs as humanly possible to get them ahead. But her number one priority was to keep Gideon out of trouble and off Weaver’s radar.

 


End file.
